Transcriptome divergence between developmental senescence and premature senescence in Nicotiana tabacum L.

Senescence is a degenerative process triggered by intricate and coordinated regulatory networks, and the mechanisms of age-dependent senescence and stress-induced premature senescence still remain largely elusive. Thus we selected leaf samples of developmental senescence (DS) and premature senescence (PS) to reveal the regulatory divergence. Senescent leaves were confirmed by yellowing symptom and physiological measurement. A total of 1171 and 309 genes (DEGs) were significantly expressed respectively in the whole process of DS and PS. Up-regulated DEGs in PS were mostly related to ion transport, while the down-regulated DEGs were mainly associated with oxidoreductase activity and sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis. In DS, photosynthesis, precursor metabolites and energy, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, flavonoid biosynthesis were notable. Moreover, we found the vital pathways shared by DS and PS, of which the DEGs were analyzed further via protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis to explore the alteration responding to two types of senescence. In addition, plant hormone transduction pathway was mapped by related DEGs, suggesting that ABA and ethylene signaling played pivotal roles in formulating the distinction of DS and PS. Finally, we conducted a model containing oxidative stress and ABA signaling as two hub points, which highlighted the major difference and predicted the possible mechanism under DS and PS. This work gained new insight into molecular divergence of developmental senescence and premature senescence and would provide reference on potential mechanism initiating and motivating senescence for further study.